I have already developed the research topic, thesis, and the authors I want to use. Use sources to help connect poems to reality.  Analyze each poem and tell what they mean. Hanging Fire- Audre Lorde I am fourteen and my skin has betrayed me the boy I cannot live without still sucks his tumb in secret how come my knees are always so ashy what if I die before the morning comes and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed. I have to learn how to dance in time for the next party my room is too small for me suppose I de before graduation they will sing sad melodies but finally tell the truth aout me There is nothing I want to do and too much that has to be done and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed. A Woman Speaks Moon marked and touched by sun    my magic is unwritten but when the sea turns back it will leave my shape behind.    I seek no favor untouched by blood unrelenting as the curse of love    permanent as my errors or my pride I do not mix love with pity nor hate with scorn and if you would know me look into the entrails of Uranus    where the restless oceans pound. I do not dwell within my birth nor my divinities    who am ageless and half-grown    and still seeking my sisters witches in Dahomey wear me inside their coiled cloths    as our mother did mourning. I have been woman for a long time beware my smile I am treacherous with old magic    and the noon's new fury with all your wide futures    promised I am woman and not white. poem in praise of menstruation - Lucille Clifton if there is a river more beautiful than this bright as the blood red edge of the moon          if there is a river more faithful than this returning each month to the same delta          if there is a river braver than this coming and coming in a surge of passion, of pain          if there is a river more ancient than this daughter of eve mother of cain and of abel          if there is in the universe such a river          if there is some where water more powerful than this wild water pray that it flows also through animals beautiful and faithful and ancient and female and brave the lost baby poem the time I dropped your almost body down down to meet the waters under the city  and run one with the sewage to the sea  what did i know about waters rushing back  what did i know about drowning or being drowned   you would have been born into winter in the year of the disconnected gas and no car        we would have made the thin walk over genesee hill  into the canada wind to watch you  slip like ice into strangers’ hands  you would have fallen naked as snow into winter  if you were here i could tell you these  and some other things   if i am ever less than a mountain for your definite  brothers and sisters let the rivers pour over my head let the sea take me for a spiller of seas        let black men call me stranger always for your ne.

1. I have already developed the research topic, thesis, and the
authors I want to use. Use sources to help connect poems to
reality.
Analyze each poem and tell what they mean.
Hanging Fire- Audre Lorde
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party

2. my room is too small for me
suppose I de before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth aout me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.
A Woman Speaks
Moon marked and touched by sun
my magic is unwritten
but when the sea turns back
it will leave my shape behind.
I seek no favor

3. untouched by blood
unrelenting as the curse of love
permanent as my errors
or my pride
I do not mix
love with pity
nor hate with scorn
and if you would know me
look into the entrails of Uranus
where the restless oceans pound.
I do not dwell
within my birth nor my divinities
who am ageless and half-grown
and still seeking
my sisters
witches in Dahomey
wear me inside their coiled cloths

4. as our mother did
mourning.
I have been woman
for a long time
beware my smile
I am treacherous with old magic
and the noon's new fury
with all your wide futures
promised
I am
woman
and not white.
poem in praise of menstruation
- Lucille Clifton
if there is a river
more beautiful than this

5. bright as the blood
red edge of the moon if
there is a river
more faithful than this
returning each month
to the same delta if there
is a river
braver than this
coming and coming in a surge
of passion, of pain if there is
a river
more ancient than this
daughter of eve
mother of cain and of abel if there is in
the universe such a river if
there is some where water
more powerful than this wild

6. water
pray that it flows also
through animals
beautiful and faithful and ancient
and female and brave
the lost baby poem
the time I dropped your almost body down
down to meet the waters under the city
and run one with the sewage to the sea
what did i know about waters rushing back
what did i know about drowning or being drowned
you would have been born into winter in the year of the
disconnected gas and no car
we would have made the thin walk over genesee hill
into the canada wind to watch you
slip like ice into strangers’ hands
you would have fallen naked as snow into winter

7. if you were here i could tell you these
and some other things
if i am ever less than a mountain for your definite
brothers and sisters let the rivers pour over my head
let the sea take me for a spiller of seas
let black men call me stranger always
for your never named sake
later i’ll say
i spent my life
loving a great man
later
my life will accuse me
of various treasons
not black enough
too black
eyes closed when they should have been open
eyes open when they should have been closed

8. will accuse me for unborn babies
and dead trees
later
when i defend again and again
with this love
my life will keep silent
listening to
my body breaking